James Kent, writing for
The Wall Street Journal OTC, brings us the news that
Marine fish, invertebrates to disappear from tropics due to Rising Temperature. Using the same climate change assumptions that are in the major recent U.N. Intragovernmental Panel on Climate Change study, a group of scientists from Canada's University of British Columbia are predicting that an increasing number of fish stocks will disappear from tropical areas, and move into new habitats further north including the Arctic and Antarctic regions by 2050.
In what could be termed as the worst effect of degrading climatic conditions and global warming, a new study has showed that fish in large numbers will disappear from the tropics by 2050.
If the oceans face worst scenarios and warm by three degrees Celsius by 2100, then these aquatic creatures could migrate from their present habitats to another region at a rate of 26 kilometres per decade.
“The tropics will be the overall losers. This area has a high dependence on fish for food, diet and nutrition. We’ll see a loss of fish populations that are important to the fisheries and communities in these regions,” said William Cheung, study co-author and associate professor at the UBC Fisheries Centre.
Sadly, the best case scenario indicates that even if we manage to limit the maximum rise in average global temperature to 1 degree Celsius, the average dispersion of fish populations will move north at a rate of 15 kilometers per decade. Tropical populations dependent on fish as a major source of food may not be able to move north as easily as their marine populations.
An additional concern is that complicated ecosystems often react much differently to change than we are able to predict.
I'm not a climate scientist but I have read enough studies to realize we are clearly not reducing CO2 and other fossil fuel emissions to keep global temperature change to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius. So, even the best case scenario may already be beyond plausible reach.
This is yet another major scientific study warning us that we are not reducing fossil fuel emissions at a rate close enough to ward off dire environmental consequences.
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